I started this as a response to Lucy and AnnaZed in the comments of the latest “Keep Coming Back,” but I just couldn’t shut up, so I turned it into a post. — ftg

Of course, drunkenness impairs people’s judgment and impulse control, so there’s a solid correlation between drunk driving and alcoholism. But the two — chronic drunk driving and alcoholism — seem to me to be such vastly different things. Making dangerous decisions every time you’re drunk is not the same thing as being alcohol dependent.

People do what they’ve given themselves permission to do, knee-walking drunk or not. I know that seems harsh and maybe unreasonable, because I’m sure we’ve all done things drunk (pick fights), hungover (call in sick and eat Cheetos and Gatorade all day in front of Jerry Springer), or because we wanted to drink ( lie, treat family like shit), that we never, ever would have done sober. At the same time, though, there are things we would never do, no matter how drunk we got, because we just don’t have permission to do them. Continue reading National Conscience

(Stillwater, Okla.) — A Cushing man — who is on probation for manslaughter in the 2003 drunk driving death of a teenage relative in a one-car crash — has been ordered to appear in court Sept. 23 on a charge of drunk driving again in Cushing.

Gary Allen Schaffner had been in prison for 1st degree manslaughter. He was driving drunk, lost control of his car, which rolled and ejected his 17-year-old passenger (his cousin); then he fled the scene. His cousin died the next day.

After spending nearly a year in prison — of a 4 year sentence — Schaffner was released:

When he modified Schaffner’s sentence on judicial review in 2006, Murphy ordered him to complete his G.E.D., attend Alcoholics Anonymous meetings at least twice per week, make arrangements to begin paying a $10,000 fine, and not drive or attempt to gain a driver’s license.

Sentencing someone to AA is like buying someone a lottery ticket for their birthday.